These sharks prefer the shoreline from Florida to Brazil. This is where it gets the common name from. The tropical parts of the western Atlantic Ocean is home to this variety of sharks. Normally found on the outer edges of reefs, the Caribbean Reef Shark prefers to live in coral reefs and its shallow waters as well as continental shelves and insular shelves. These sharks are found quite commonly at a depth of about 100 feet (30 meters) and are known to dive to incredible depths of around 1250 feet (380 meters).

But another potential cause is that these sharks are skittish around people. So when too many people move into the area, the reef sharks flee to other coral reefs. Indeed, the researchers found far more sharks at small, isolated reefs than they expected. But this in itself is a danger to the reef sharks. With so many sharks concentrated in a small area, “if you really wanted to, you could fish out a few hundred sharks very easily,” said Friedlander.

^ Garla, R.C.; Chapman, D.D.; Shivji, M.S.; Wetherbee, B.M.; Amorim, A.F. (2006). "Habitat of juvenile Caribbean reef sharks, Carcharhinus perezi, at two oceanic insular marine protected areas in the southwestern Atlantic Ocean: Fernando de Noronha Archipelago and Atol das Rocas, Brazil". Fisheries Research. 81 (2–3): 236–241. doi:10.1016/j.fishres.2006.07.003.
The Caribbean Reef Shark is known to be relatively passive and typically doesn’t pose much of a threat to scuba divers, snorklers, swimmers, or other humans it comes into contact with. They actually tend to avoid human interaction entirely. As per theInternational Shark Attack Files, there have been 27 attacks documented since 1960, of which none have been fatal. Of those attacks, it’s believe that 4 of them were caused because the shark mistakenly thought the person was a food source. The rest of the attacks were provoked attacks such as sharks caught in fishing equipment biting the fisherman.

But another potential cause is that these sharks are skittish around people. So when too many people move into the area, the reef sharks flee to other coral reefs. Indeed, the researchers found far more sharks at small, isolated reefs than they expected. But this in itself is a danger to the reef sharks. With so many sharks concentrated in a small area, “if you really wanted to, you could fish out a few hundred sharks very easily,” said Friedlander.

A profitable ecotourism industry has arisen around this species involving organized "shark feeds", in which groups of reef sharks are attracted to divers using bait. Some US$6,000,000 is spent annually on shark viewing in the Bahamas, where at some sites a single living Caribbean reef shark has a value between US$13,000 and US$40,000 (compared to a one-time value of US$50–60 for a dead shark).[14] This practice has drawn controversy, as opponents argue that the sharks may learn to associate humans with food, increasing the chances of a shark attack, and that the removal of reef fishes for bait may damage the local ecosystem. Conversely, proponents maintain that shark feeds contribute to conservation by incentivizing the protection of sharks and educating people about them. Thus far, there has been little evidence that shark feeds have increased the risk of attack in the surrounding area.[8][15] Shark feeding has been outlawed off the coast of Florida, but continues at other locations in the Caribbean.[4]

The Caribbean reef shark is the most common shark on or near coral reefs in the Caribbean. It is a tropical inshore, bottom-dwelling species of the continental and insular shelves. Although C. perezi mainly inhabits shallow waters, it has been recorded to reach depths to at least 98 feet (30 m). Caribbean reef sharks are commonly found close to drop-offs on the outer edges of coral reefs and also may lie motionless on the bottom of the ocean floor. This phenomenon has also been observed in caves off the coast of Mexico and off the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.
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In older literature, the scientific name of this species was often given as C. menisorrah.[5] The blacktail reef shark (C. wheeleri), native to the western Indian Ocean, is now regarded as the same species as the grey reef shark by most authors. It was originally distinguished from the grey reef shark by a white tip on the first dorsal fin, a shorter snout, and one fewer upper tooth row on each side.[6] Based on morphological characters, vertebral counts, and tooth shapes, Garrick (1982) concluded the grey reef shark is most closely related to the silvertip shark (C. albimarginatus).[7] This interpretation was supported by a 1992 allozyme phylogenetic analysis by Lavery.[8]

One useful definition distinguishes reefs from mounds as follows: Both are considered to be varieties of organosedimentary buildups – sedimentary features, built by the interaction of organisms and their environment, that have synoptic relief and whose biotic composition differs from that found on and beneath the surrounding sea floor. Reefs are held up by a macroscopic skeletal framework. Coral reefs are an excellent example of this kind. Corals and calcareous algae grow on top of one another and form a three-dimensional framework that is modified in various ways by other organisms and inorganic processes. By contrast, mounds lack a macroscopic skeletal framework (see stromatolite). Mounds are built by microorganisms or by organisms that don't grow a skeletal framework. A microbial mound might be built exclusively or primarily by cyanobacteria. Excellent examples of biostromes formed by cyanobacteria occur in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and in Shark Bay on the coast of Western Australia.